Talent Shopping: Amazon hires about half a dozen Snapdeal senior executives

Priyanka Sahay

Moneycontrol News 

At a time when e-commerce firm Snapdeal is undergoing a due diligence from Flipkart's team ahead of a potential stake sale, rival Amazon is busy shopping for senior talent that has recently quit the Gurgaon firm or is serving their notice period.

At least five senior executives, holding positions such as vice president, assistant vice president and director at Gurgaon-based Snapdeal and its payments firm Freecharge, have been hired by Amazon for multiple roles.

Amit Kurseja who was serving as assistant vice president, heading merchant solutions, payments and financial services products at Freecharge has joined Amazon India as its head of external payments, this month.

Siddharth Bedi who was a senior director of supply chain at Snapdeal has also joined Amazon India as a senior program manager.

Other who have quit Snapdeal recently to join Amazon India include – senior executives Viraj Chatterjee, Sunny Jain and Rahul Bansal.

Viraj Chatterjee was vice president of technology who reported to Snapdeal’s chief technology officer Rajiv Mangala, Rahul Bansal was senior director of product management, head seller platform and Sunny Jain, director, business finance at Snapdeal.

Some of the executives quoted above have quit the firm already while some are serving a notice period. New roles of Chatterjee, Bansal and Jain at Amazon weren't immediately clear.

None of the executives responded to Moneycontrol's queries on the matter.

Amazon declined to comment citing that the company doesn't comment on what it may or may not do in future.

At a time when senior executives continue to quit the firm, Snapdeal last month offered retention bonus its existing staff provided the deal with Flipkart goes through.

Moneycontrol reported last month that senior executives have been offered retention amount worth 4-6 times of their monthly salary. The amount will be handed out to senior employees only if they remain in the merged entity for 180 days post completion of the deal.

Snapdeal did not respond to an email query on this story.

Amazon which is neck and neck with market leader Flipkart earlier used to be the third e-commerce player followed by Snapdeal, a few years ago. In early 2016, it raced ahead of Snapdeal to grab its number two slot.

In the last couple of years, Amazon has launched a slew of its services and products in the India market as a bid to expand its market share.

It launched its global Prime Membership programme in July. In February last year, it started grocery delivery in Bangalore. Earlier this year, it also launched content streaming media device Fire TV Stick - in India.

The hiring of key executives from Snapdeal signals a fortification by Amazon India against local rival Flipkart which has joined hands with eBay to give it a fight on its home turf. An acquisition of Snapdeal, without its core strong team is likely to wane away some sheen from the deal for Flipkart.

Priyanka.sahay@nw18.com